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I don't know about you though, I really don't see the point in a lot of Fantasy Football games online.

What I'd like is a league where you can't pick the same player twice, one where managers are involved. A game that appreciates that Football is more than just scoring goals and hell wouldn't it be nice to score games like fantasy baseball in a rotisserie format?

So let's do that!

I'm going to make this so simple that even your average relatively new fan with a basic grasp of the game understands.

Players are drafted in the same way as any U.S sports fantasy league. The order of picking will be decided on random.org and it will be in the format of 1-2-3-4, 4-3-2-1 until squads are full.

On top of the order of picking each nation of Eng, Spa, Ita, Ger, Fra will be assigned a number. When you are assigned your draft number you will then be assigned a country number. The reason for this will be explained below.

Your squad will consist of 11 players and one manager. No subs!

You draft your players from any of the following leagues Eng, Spa, Ita, Ger, Fra. Why those leagues? Because I will be marking the scoring based on stats available from British Eurosport and they are the only leagues that give the necessary info.

Given we can pick any players in the world it would be too easy to pick without stipulations so here is the fun/tricky part.

Whichever country you were assigned along with your draft pick, this determines your team's nationality and where you can pick from, so for example if you got Germany then you can pick from any German side, Italy any Italian etc. The reason this is important is you MUST choose FOUR players from that country to represent your 11.

So for example if you are given France as your team, you can pick Lyon and your four french players could be Benzema, Ribery, Vieira, Makelele .... assuming of course no one else has picked them first.

As with fantasy baseball the scoring will be decided via your teams stats in various areas.

In baseball for example ERA, K's, AVG etc

In our game the stats will be the following.

Wins (this can only be determined by Manager)
Losses (same but obviously the lower the better)
Goals For
Goals Against
Assists
Tackles made
Clean Sheets
Red Cards (lower the better as with ERA for example)
Own Goals (same deal)

So there are 9 areas in which you need to look at your team and the key is BALANCE not just flash players who score goals.

Good eh?

Hopefully we get at least 4 people and we can get to work before the new season starts.

Trust me, it is a million times easier than fantasy baseball and I picked that up straight away.

It seems complicated written out like that but once it comes to playing the game it will be easy.

Here is a mock idea of how it will happen for each person.

You get your draft number. 1 for example (lucky you)

You get your country number. 3, which say = spain for example.

So you then choose your country. If you are first in the draft you are last choice of team. All teams are picked and it is your turn to pick. Someone is also in Spain and has picked Barca, so you can't, you pick Real.

Draft time.

You realise you have to pick 4 players of Spanish nationality so you sort out your tactics and begin the draft.

You take Casillas. This gives you 1 spaniard leaving 3 more. You could pick Ronaldo if you think it is more important to draft him than a spaniard as long as at the end of the draft you have 4 spaniards.

The draft finishes and you have 4 spaniards and 7 players as well as a manager from anywhere else in the world (can have more than 4 spanish players if you like and this is also a tactic to buy them up so any other spanish teams are left with poorer players).

You list players in a team thread. This is your team. This team is used weekly to determine your score in the same way as fantasy baseball does and as shown above.

I think I have it. We're assigned a country and four players on our team must be from that country. Then we pick a club from that country and we have to play that club's typical formation? So it really doesn't matter what club we get, just as long as the formation is one that we like? What about back-ups?

It was the selection I was missing out on, not the concept of fantasy sports. That I get.

I think I have it. We're assigned a country and four players on our team must be from that country. Then we pick a club from that country and we have to play that club's typical formation? So it really doesn't matter what club we get, just as long as the formation is one that we like? What about back-ups?

It was the selection I was missing out on, not the concept of fantasy sports. That I get.

Click to expand...

Nearly but not quite.

You can play any of the following formations: 4-2-3-1 / 4-4-2/ 4-3-3/ 4-5-1

You must be realistic in playing players in their correct positions. So you can't play Ashely Cole as a CB for example nor Hyypia as a Left back for that matter.

Injured players go on the dl and if they are world players then you replace them with anyone you like who is availble. If they are homegrown players they must be replaced by homegrown players.

I figured it would be easier doing this here as most of you will be familiar with the concept of fantasy baseball.

Sounds good. How about we pick a bench too, require two keepers and four natives must be in the starting XI at all times? That fixes the bench confusion. Maybe five guys on the bench?

And what about a guy like Essien who is a defensive midfielder but has played at right back and central defense for Chelsea? And I think the formations need to be better specified. A 4-5-1 shouldn't have two wingers and three attacking-mids.

Sounds good. How about we pick a bench too, require two keepers and four natives must be in the starting XI at all times? That fixes the bench confusion. Maybe five guys on the bench?

And what about a guy like Essien who is a defensive midfielder but has played at right back and central defense for Chelsea? And I think the formations need to be better specified. A 4-5-1 shouldn't have two wingers and three attacking-mids.

Click to expand...

Yeah you are gettin this, first person I've ran it by who gets where I'm coming from.

I'll draw out tactics later in the form of which type of players can play in which formations.

When each player is drafted I will edit their position.

So say Essien goes first:

CM/DM - I know he has played rb and cb but it was a last straw.

I'll think on about the bench idea but nice to see we are singing from the same sheet....

Using the FM database, we could start a fantasy draft that only includes one league or all of Europe (the latter would be more complicated). Players can only be chosen once and everyone starts with a standard transfer kitty.

On the 1st of every month each participant has the chance to exchange/transfer players between themselves or sign new players from the database who aren't affiliated with a club. I'd probably steal the points system from PremierLeague.com use hielo's method.

Anyway, just a thought and probably won't be put into use until next year.

Using the FM database, we could start a fantasy draft that only includes one league or all of Europe (the latter would be more complicated). Players can only be chosen once and everyone starts with a standard transfer kitty.

On the 1st of every month each participant has the chance to exchange/transfer players between themselves or sign new players from the database who aren't affiliated with a club. I'd probably steal the points system from PremierLeague.com use hielo's method.

Anyway, just a thought and probably won't be put into use until next year.